The use of the symbol ‘food’ as a compensatory device for organ inferiority

Abstract

Through the presentation of a clinical case, we reflect on the symbolic meanings associated with the object ‘food’ as a means of overcoming or radicalizing feelings of inferiority. The consumption of ‘good’ or ‘bad’ food, ‘a lot’ or ‘a little,’ is linked to experiences marked by self-affirmation or self-destruction. Thus, reducing food intake seems to be connected to deep-seated anxieties, aggressive requests for help, or punishment of figures experienced as frustrating. In this sense, food is considered a means of communication as an object that is given and received, whose pleasurable component often conceals censored motivations